The intense affair was tied at 5-5 in the fifth set when a rain shower started to fall, which forced a brief stoppage. When the players returned to the court, with Wawrinka serving at 40-15 in the 11th game of the stanza, the sturdy Swiss swatted his 17th ace to grab a 6-5 edge.

Five games later, the former world No. 1 Djokovic was serving to stay in the match, but his Swiss counterpart recorded the biggest break of the fortnight on the men's side when Djokovic misfired wide with one final forehand, sending Wawrinka into his first-ever Aussie Open semi and second career major final four. He also appeared in last year's U.S. Open semis.

The 28-year-old Wawrinka had dropped his last 14 matches against the mighty Djokovic, who is now 15-3 lifetime against the Swiss.

Wawrinka's semifinal opponent on Thursday will be seventh-seeded former Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych, who upset third seed David Ferrer 6-1, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 on Day 9.

The quarterfinals will conclude on Wednesday, when current world No. 1 Rafael Nadal takes on 22nd-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and fourth-seede